I'm moving! Advice on relocating Biocube 29!!!

legacy2mj · Jul 1, 2014

I will be moving here in about a month and I don't know how to safely relocate my tank. Any advice is appreciated!

vlangel · Jul 1, 2014

Are you moving locally? If so ask your LFS if you can have some of their Styrofoam fish shipping boxes. That way when you bag your fish you can keep their temperature more stable. Its helpful to use oxygen in the bags too. Save the water, rock and sand in clean buckets. Long distant moves are trickier, especially in summer temperatures.

legacy2mj · Jul 1, 2014

It would be locally. I'm just concerned with the corals. If affixed to the rock do I keep the rock submerged? It's all a big mystery to me. I'm almost considering seeing if there is a company that moves tanks and sets them up professionally if the cost is right.... I just didn't know if anybody has any experience with this. It's stressful because I'm sure you all know... These tanks you spend so much time on, weren't cheap to develop

vlangel · Jul 1, 2014

You can keep your coral attached to their rock submerged in buckets. I can't speak about SPS but LPS and softies travel pretty well. Just don't let rocks tumble down on them. I have helped move a couple tanks and the coral always fared well, it was the fish that were the most at risk.

legacy2mj · Jul 2, 2014

thank you. luckily at this point I have no fish... just corals and 2 shrimp...
on another note... I just picked this up today at my LFS.... I believe it may be a rather rare favia but am not sure on the name... it was delivered to the store a few hours before i walked in as a frag from a past employee. any chance you can help me ID it?

vlangel · Jul 2, 2014

Sorry, not real experienced with favites except a war coral my son gave me. There's a place to post ID threads, might have luck with someone seeing it there.

myownlife · Jul 2, 2014

Keep the rock and coral in a 5 gallon bucket of the tank water during transfer

reefer Ard · Jul 3, 2014

Go buy a couple of big packing bins and put your water and rocks into that. Just drive a little slower when it comes to that trip so you don't get a lot of spillage. Once you get there, set up a light on a timer and a power head and start workings on the cube again. It is a process but doable. Sooner you get the tank back up and running, the better off you are with keeping the coral and fish alive and happy.

Don't freak though because you will probably seen some signs of stress at first once you get the fish and coral back into the tank. Use as much of their old water you can and then do a water change a day or two later once they get back into the swing of things.

legacy2mj · Jul 7, 2014

reefer Ard said:
Go buy a couple of big packing bins and put your water and rocks into that. Just drive a little slower when it comes to that trip so you don't get a lot of spillage. Once you get there, set up a light on a timer and a power head and start workings on the cube again. It is a process but doable. Sooner you get the tank back up and running, the better off you are with keeping the coral and fish alive and happy.

Don't freak though because you will probably seen some signs of stress at first once you get the fish and coral back into the tank. Use as much of their old water you can and then do a water change a day or two later once they get back into the swing of things.

awesome... i appreciate the advice... none the less, im still nervous to do it.
I dont have any fish yet, just 2 cleaner shrimp and about 8 coral frags. so it could be much worse.... but being that im still fairly new to this im afraid to ruin everything. haha

fishroomlady · Jul 7, 2014

it should be relatively easy to do although I understand your nervousness. As others have said, just use as much of your existing water and all of your rock and sand. Keep the livestock in a bucket with a powerhead pointed toward the surface for agitation while you tear down and set up the tank.

SeahorseKeeper · Jul 7, 2014

I just moved my tanks a little over a week ago. It was pretty nerve racking, but I moved two tanks with one loss. I lost a peppermint shrimp.

Here is what I did:

I put all corals that were not attached to rocks in specimen cups or tupper ware containers.
Rocks that contained corals were carefully placed in buckets.
I had a bunch of buckets that I put the existing saltwater and rocks in.
Fish were put into three separate buckets with lids.
I put lids on everything.

I did not use the existing sand bed. It was five years old and I was afraid of unleashing the nastiness that could be within. I did use about 3 cups to seed the new sand bed. I had plenty of saltwater ready to go at the new place and test kits.

Now, I did have a tank setup at the new house with new sand and some fresh saltwater in it (only about 5 gallons). When I got everything to the new house, I placed the water and rocks first and had my livestock in safe temp controlled area. After the rocks were in place and the tank was filled, I hooked up my filtration and let the tank settle in. I did add Bio Spira, but I would recommend to use Dr. Tim's. Once the tank was settled in a little, I added the livestock. This worked for me.

Dalmatia · Jul 7, 2014

legacy2mj said:
I will be moving here in about a month and I don't know how to safely relocate my tank. Any advice is appreciated!

Pretend you just bought everything! Place each invert, coral and fish into individual bags. If possible get some styrofoam boxes from your LFS! It will keep the temp. under control
Live rock will be fine in a bin.
Live sand,,,, make sure you rinse it in some of your DT water prior to dumping it out

vlangel · Jul 7, 2014

SeahorseKeeper said:
I just moved my tank a little over a week ago. It was pretty nerve racking, but I moved two tanks with one loss. I lost a peppermint shrimp.

Here is what I did:

I put all corals that were not attached to rocks in specimen cups or tupper ware containers.

Rocks that contained corals were carefully placed in buckets.

I had a bunch of buckets that I put the existing saltwater and rocks in.

Fish were put into three separate buckets with lids.

I put lids on everything.

I did not use the existing sand bed. It was five years old and I was afraid of unleashing the nastiness that could be within. I did use about 3 cups to seed the new sand bed. I had plenty of saltwater ready to go at the new place and test kits.

Now, I did have a tank setup at the new house with new sand and some fresh saltwater in it (only about 5 gallons). When I got the livestock to the house, I placed the water and rocks first and had my livestock in safe temp controlled area. After the rocks were in place and the tank was filled, I hooked up my filtration and let the tank settle in. I did add Bio Spira, but I would recommend to use Dr. Tim's. Once the tank was settled in a little, I added the livestock. This worked for me.